The Lawrence Browne Affair is more of Cat Sebastian's romance excellence. In it we follow Georgie Turner a rogue making a living scamming the upper crust of London. That is until he crosses his dangerous boss Mattie Brewster. To keep the heat of his back and protect his family Georgie escapes to Cornwall taking a job as secretary to Lawrence Browne a genius inventor and the allegedly mad Earl of Radnor.

This book had Cat Sebastian's signature excellent character writing. I was quickly sucked into Georgie and Lawrence's inner angst. Georgie's arc centres his growing revulsion with the man he has become. He feels inherently unworthy of love because of his lifetime of scamming and he has to overcome that and his fear about where of the rest of his life lays if he leaves his criminal life behind throughout the course of the novel.

Lawrence, in a parallel arc, contends with his alleged "madness". It becomes clear to Georgie and the audience that what Lawrence sees as madness is a combination of some flavour of autism and internalized homophobia. Seeing him break down the lies told to him by his family and society and learn to imagine a full life was beautiful. I loved that Georgie telling Lawrence he wasn't crazy didn't instantly fix his self perception and that the symptoms of his disability like his severe sensitivity to noise, exclusively eating safe foods, and discomfort in social situations weren't magically erased by the power of love.

A lesser author could have taken the easy route, but Sebastian's deft hand in constructing meaningful conflict made Lawrence and Georgie's hard won romance all the more satisfying. Impatient readers might deride Sebastian's use of the miscommunication trope, especially in the back half of the novel, but I loved her character specific understanding of why people don't just say what they feel when they feel it. Another thing that makes this book so great is the excellent tension building. Lawrence and Georgie's instant attraction was sizzling and had me waiting with bated breath at every glance and hand touch.

The Lawrence Browne Affair is a great romance and a great novel. Cat Sebastian's intimate understanding of compelling character writing and deft control of narrative tension and pacing made for an amazing read.